


The Future is in Somebody's Backyard (The Fly Like We Do Mix)

by cm (mumblemutter)



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Experimental, Fluff, Incest, M/M, Meta, Remix, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-15
Updated: 2012-04-15
Packaged: 2017-11-03 17:14:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/383906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mumblemutter/pseuds/cm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Armando's just happy he can waste his time in fandom instead of fighting for mutant rights.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Future is in Somebody's Backyard (The Fly Like We Do Mix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pearl_o](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pearl_o/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Give me your stars to hold](https://archiveofourown.org/works/316728) by [pearl_o](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pearl_o/pseuds/pearl_o). 
  * Inspired by [Circles on the Grass](https://archiveofourown.org/works/363835) by [pearl_o](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pearl_o/pseuds/pearl_o). 
  * Inspired by [With the Red Roses](https://archiveofourown.org/works/320867) by [pearl_o](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pearl_o/pseuds/pearl_o). 
  * Inspired by [rest your head (on this heart of mine)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/360062) by [pearl_o](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pearl_o/pseuds/pearl_o). 



Armando was a kid when Charles Xavier died. He remembers watching CNN, his mother going, "Guess you're not gonna be an X-Man anymore."

"Maaaa, the X-Men aren't just Professor X, don't you know anything," he replied in typical six year old whininess. He remembers watching, also, Magneto at the funeral, dropping his helmet onto the lowered casket and openly weeping. Armando didn't get it back then - they were supposed to be enemies, weren't they?

He gets it now. Or he thinks he does: It's not easy shifting through the tangled webs of their lives, separating truth from fiction from myth. Stuff gets declassified every day, what with the new administration's policy of increasing transparency when it comes to the mutant rights struggle - as it ought to be, mutants helped the president get elected after all, but even then the information is spotty.

It's not as if Erik and Charles sat down often for interviews to chat about their decades long romance. Not as if Armando truly believes it to be true anyway, or that it matters. He just likes to pretend that it is.

*

The first thing he does when he wakes up is reach for his phone. He checks tumblr, livejournal, and then his emails. There's a bunch of stuff he needs to read and reply to, mostly comments about the story he posted last night. Armando decides to look at them later, but for now he just flops back onto the bed and browses idly through the kink meme, hoping the story he's been following will have been updated throughout the night. It hasn't, and Armando sighs.

**Havok:** morning sleepyhead!  
 **Darwin:** how did hit know I was awake

His laptop is just a few feet away, but he's too lazy and contented to get out of bed now, so it'll have to wait.

**Havok:** you get up at the same time every morning, you dolt. and get off the phone.  
 **Darwin:** but I'm laze. also it's a Saturday I can stay in id I want. why are you up do early?

Alex is a few hours ahead of him. Not like Armando has his phone displaying both their timezones or anything.

**Havok:** late night. i haven't even gone to bed yet. will crash soon.  
 **Havok:** just wanted to say hi.

He scrolls through the Charles Xavier tag on Tumblr and pauses on a video of James McAvoy discussing the sequel to the X-Men biopic, and whether the rumors are true that it will focus on Magneto. "Well, we've been in some discussion, but as to where it's headed you really have to ask the producers."

The interviewer asks something Armando doesn't quite catch, but McAvoy helpfully repeats the question for him, "Do I think mutants and humans have reached equality? The way Professor X envisioned it? I think there's a ways to go yet, but we're getting there. I will say this, a decade ago there wouldn't even have been an X-Men biopic, and they definitely wouldn't have cast a mutant."

Then the interviewer asks: "So tell me something, if you could, would you choose telepathy or the power that you were born with?

"It's hardly a power, love, all I can do is make people feel comfortable for short bursts of time. It's why I'm just an actor. It does come in handy with a pregnant wife at home though." He winks at the camera. "Now, Fassbender. He could be a real superhero. He actually has a costume in his closet, it's very fetching."

*

On the way to do his laundry he finds out that another chapter of his favorite AU has been posted. He tells this to Alex excitedly, but as usual Alex reacts with an eyeroll.

**Havok:** it's like half a million words now and not even close to an ending.  
 **Darwin:** It's called having an attention span, Al.  
 **Havok:** whatever. you should write me more about the brothers.  
 **Darwin:** I added some stuff. Sending you now.  
 **Havok:** sweet.

> Erik had always known that he belonged to Charles. He doesn't remember much of his childhood before coming home, but he remembers the day. The nice lady who smelt of lavender leaning over him and telling him, "You're coming home with me now, sweetie." And then Charles, and Erik had held out his hand and Charles took it, and that was that.
> 
> Mother asked him once, nervously, "I was - I keep expecting you to ask me about your real family. Where you came from." Erik had lifted his head, thought of Charles upstairs, head bent over a book and waiting for Erik to come up and interrupt him, and replied, "I know who my real family is." She'd started crying then, and he'd had to hug her until he was crying too, and finally she pulled away and wiped the tears from his face. "Go on up and tell your brother dinner's ready in a half hour, and that he doesn't get dessert if he's late."
> 
> Upstairs, he'd stood at the entrance of Charles' room and watched as he muttered to himself and scribbled something into his notebook, oblivious to Erik until Erik must have made some sound, and then he started, and smiled brilliantly. "Mom says you're not to be late for dinner," Erik said. "What are you doing?"
> 
> "Just some brushing up for school tomorrow. Some of us believe in being prepared."
> 
> Erik threw himself onto the bed. "You're such a freak," he said, and had to catch the dreamy tone in his voice. There had to be something wrong with him: Charles' pillow smelled _amazing._

**Havok:** is that it?  
 **Darwin:** IDK sex happens at some point?  
 **Havok:** yes, please?  
 **Darwin:** What, now? I need to build the setting first.  
 **Havok:** w/e w/e SEX  
 **Darwin:** God.  
 **Darwin:** Hang on a minute.

There's a green-hued girl with pink wings at the laundromat that always flirts with him, so Armando puts the phone away for a while. He starts writing as soon as he gets back to his apartment though, and tells Alex the story is updated.

> The night before Charles is set to go back to college, Erik crawls into bed with him. Charles is halfway to asleep, but he loops an arm around Erik's waist and pulls him close. "Charles," Erik says urgently, "I want you to fuck me." That jolts Charles awake. He blinks, wide-eyed, at Erik. "I brought the lube and everything." It feels stupid now, this. Of course Charles won't. But he's wanted everything else so far. Why not this. Erik bites his lip and blurts out, "Won't you say something, please."
> 
> "I'm torn," Charles says. "Between what my cock wants and what my brain is telling me, which is that what my cock wants is wrong."
> 
> "Oh," Erik says, sighing slightly in relief. "It's okay, just don't listen to your brain for once." He puts his hand on Charles' chest. "I want you to be my first, Charles."
> 
> Charles looks up at the ceiling, whistles between his teeth. "Stop that, you're making it -" He grabs Erik then, pushes him onto his back and straddles him. "I love you," he says fervently.
> 
> "I know."
> 
> Erik helps Charles undress before throwing off his own clothes with wild abandon. "I've never," Charles says. "Only, you know. With girls. But not that."
> 
> "It's okay, I trust you." For some reason that makes Charles groan, and he leans down to lay a hot, wet kiss on Erik's lips. "Go on," Erik whispers, when Charles pulls away finally, barely an inch away. "Fuck me. Fill me up with your -"
> 
> Charles starts spluttering, and it takes a moment for Erik to realize he's laughing. "You need to lay off the gay porn."
> 
> "Shut it." Erik wraps one leg around Charles' waist and pulls him in, and Charles' laughter cuts off abruptly. Erik can feel Charles' cock, hot and hard against his belly.
> 
> "I want to," Charles says, and he scoots downwards. Erik lets his thighs fall open as Charles opens his mouth to swallow the head of his cock, making him cry out hoarsely. Charles lifts his head long enough to go, "Shh. Mom," and Erik nods helplessly, clamps both his hands over his mouth to keep from making so much noise. Which is hard, as Charles keeps -
> 
> He pulls his hands away long enough to say, "Don't, or I'm gonna."
> 
> Charles nods his head and sits up, says brusquely, "Where's the lube?"
> 
> Erik scrambles to get it from where it lies forgotten on the floor and tosses it to him. Charles stares at it for a while, motionless, until Erik starts whining again, then he says, "Needy," but he bends to plant a kiss on the inside of Erik's leg to alleviate the sting.
> 
> It hurts, more than Erik thought it would, even though Charles uses half the tube of lube - it's watermelon flavored and Erik's not sure now why he thought it would be a good idea to be fucking while smelling watermelon, but it's too late to back down now, especially not when Charles is thrusting into him, once, twice, and Erik must have made a face, because Charles halts immediately, frowning, but Erik makes a "go on" gesture, which Charles ignores.
> 
> "It'll hurt more if you stop now, just -" He loses what he's about to say as Charles thrusts in one more time, his fingers coming up to brace Erik's face, thumb wiping the sweat from his cheek. "I love you," Erik says, as Charles makes another shallow movement, and this time it's not pain he feels. "I love you, you make me feel - _Charles._ "

**Havok:** \o/  
 **Havok:** ok now you can write the boring bits.  
 **Darwin:** You mean what some people call the 'plot'?  
 **Havok:** overrated.

*

Alex asked him at some point, "You know Mystique's still bouncing around right? What if she finds out you're writing stories where she bangs her brother."

"Yeah, I think she's too busy being a terrorist," Armando had said, "to care what I write on the internet about the ~fictionalized versions of her and her brothers."

Raven Darkholme hasn't been sighted in years beyond making the vaguest of threats to bring down the world's governments, but that's not hard when you can be anyone you like. Armando tries not to judge: he doesn't know her life, he didn't have to live through what she lived though. Ma used to say, "It was bad. Your Dad told me his parents threw him out of the house and refused to speak to him again, and all he could do was bring dead plants back to life. That's a gift, in my book."

Alex doesn't talk about why he's related to Scott Summers and yet has never met the man. He mentioned, once, that there was some kind of family feud a long time ago and now no-one even remembers what it was about, but then it was bad enough that the families don't speak until today. Armando asked him if it was kind of weird, reading porn about people his great uncle knew.

"I don't know, maybe if I get an invite to Westchester it'll be weird. But I've never met any of them. Besides, Xavier and Magneto are dead or gone. And you gotta promise me you'll never write about Cyclops."

"Yeah, I don't think that will be an issue." Armando has little to no interest in ever writing about Cyclops.

*

Armando went to an integrated high school, mutants and human alike. It was all right, mostly, he had friends who were humans and friends who were mutants. The humans were the ones more likely to wear those "Magneto was right" t-shirts, and the mutants were more likely to splash water in his face while they were having lunch together to watch him gill out.

He didn't have that much control over his mutation back then. Mostly, it was funny, they didn't mean anything by it. And weird: he never gets used to the gills, except for when he's walking underwater. Then it's just amazing, breathing the water, the darkness turning to light as his eyes adjust to the need to see.

He tells Alex this once, and Alex types a :( face. "All I can do is blow shit up."

*

Angel likes to fly in through Armando's window. "Can't you use your own window," Armando asks, every time.

"You know it's too small."

"But your room is bigger," Armando points out, as she pouts. He offered to switch with her once, but she said no.

"Is that Alex again?"

"Yes."

"Tell him hi for me." She flutters her wings briefly before settling them back into her shoulders.

"Will do."

"Are you guys writing superhero porn again?" She shooes at Armando until he makes room for her in his bed. "Oh Erik," she says, putting her hand to her forehead dramatically. "When you're done terrorizing the world into submission please bring your megalomaniacal ass to Xavier's school of pompous posturing, where I shall educate you in the art of true love and deep dicking."

Angel thinks this whole fandom thing is hilarious, but she did watch the movie with him five times - "Because it's my history too," she claimed, but mostly it was because he insisted - and Armando knows she reads Star Trek fanfic when she's bored. He elbows her and says, "Don't you have your own room?"

"But yours is so much neater."

"That's because I clean it more than once a year."

"Come on, man," Angel mutters. "Read me some like, hot man-on-man sexing. I'm bored."

"Alex says you should get lost."

"He does not, he would never be so rude." She grabs the laptop from him and Armando throws his hands up in the air. So much for finishing that story tonight. Alex and Angel get along like a house on fire. He might as well just take a nap.

*

**Alex Summers**  
to me

...what did I just read?

On Sat, Apr 14, 2011 at 2:46 AM, Armando M. (Google Docs) <darwin@gmail.com> wrote:

I've shared babies apparently

  

> The problem with babies, Charles thinks, other than the pooping and the crying and the attention seeking and how unformed their minds are, is their effect on the libido.
> 
> Charles knows this for a fact: he's spent way too many nights being cockblocked in the living room of some girl while she cooed over the little beast and he saw the night's prospects fading dimly away with every incoherent burble.
> 
> This he ponders while driving, the third shift he's volunteered to drive for, while Erik sits next to him, entertaining the baby with finger puppets.
> 
> Charles puts up with it as long as he can before he slams on the brakes. "I am not trying to avoid holding the child."
> 
> "I didn't say a word," Erik replies serenely.
> 
> Charles points at his own head, _are you new_ , and Erik starts to laugh.
> 
> The baby gurgles disgustingly in response.
> 
> "The smugness in this car," Charles says. "Is unbearable."
> 
> -
> 
> Of course, another side effect of babies is that half the time he loses interest in sex anyway, due to them being a reminder of what happens when things go wrong. Ten minutes of pleasure, twenty-five years of child-rearing.
> 
> Not that this is a problem with Erik.
> 
> Charles brightens somewhat.
> 
> "You really don't like babies." Erik sounds disappointed, like he does when Charles says things like, "No Erik, humanity will embrace us with time, you'll see." Like he's a frivolous twit in need of a good spanking -
> 
> Now there's a thought. Charles blinks, slides his hands into his pockets. Clears his throat. Lies, through his teeth. "I love babies. I just don't have a lot of experience with them. I worry that I won't be able to meet their needs. They're just so fragile."
> 
> Erik says, "They just want comfort. Surely you can understand that."
> 
> "My mother believed that crying children should be left alone until they come to their senses."
> 
> "Ah," Erik says, and Charles can practically see the lightbulb going off in his head.
> 
> "That's not it at all," he wants to protest. But he sees the opportunity presenting itself right before he gives in the urge to roll his eyes and stalk off. So he says, abashed, "Give him to me then."
> 
> "No, you wouldn't want to spoil him."
> 
> "Come on," Charles says. "Just give him to me. I will - oh shit," he says, as a squirming child ends up deposited unceremoniously in his arms. Predictably, the little brat starts to cry.
> 
> Erik takes Jakob back and shakes his head in disapproval. Charles feels properly schooled. It's kind of titillating. He opens his mouth, but shuts it again as Erik proceeds to ignore him.
> 
> _Babies._

**Darwin:** Baby road trip recruiting fic?  
 **Havok:** yes. but why?  
 **Darwin:** It was a kink meme request. Hang on.  
 **Darwin:** "During the road trip of love and feelings, Charles and Erik pick up a baby. I just want baby cuddles, guys."  
 **Havok:** no.  
 **Darwin:** I spent all night writing it. Come on.  
 **Havok:** no.  
 **Darwin:** Why not?  
 **Havok:** you can't have Charles Xavier hating babies. He was an educator.  
 **Darwin:** There weren't any X-babies in the school. How do you really know how he felt about babies?  
 **Havok:** no.  
 **Darwin:** :(  
 **Havok:** i like this bit though:

> Charles opens one eye and Erik's staring down at him, radiating fondness. There's something warm nestled against his chest. He opens his mouth but Erik puts a finger to his lips.
> 
> _He fell asleep like this_ , he projects.
> 
> Charles shifts slightly, opening his eyes fully to look at the sleeping child, a fistful of Charles' shirt loose in his tiny hand. "I believe I just exhausted him out. Nothing to do with my parenting skills whatsoever."
> 
> "Or lack of thereof."
> 
> "Or that." Erik brushes a lock of hair out of Charles' face gently, and Charles thinks wildly: surely it can't be that easy. But then maybe it is. There's room on the bed, Charles jerks his head slightly and Erik nods.
> 
> Charles watches him remove most of his clothes efficiently, and then he's sliding in behind him, wrapping an arm around Charles and cradling the back of Jakob's head with his fingers.
> 
> "It just takes practice," Erik's voice is soft against the nape of Charles' neck.
> 
> "Will you stay, then?"
> 
> Erik stiffens, and the baby stirs slightly, but settles back down almost immediately. "One day at a time, Charles. One day at a time." It's a start, at least.

**Havok:** make him hate babies a little less.  
 **Darwin:** I hate you.  
 **Havok:** you love me. you do. dude, come on.  
 **Darwin:** Shut it.

He ends up posting the the snippet to his Tumblr, minus the bit about Charles hating babies, and is faintly surprised at the number of reblogs it gets.

**Darwin:** Babies, man.  
 **Havok:** Girls, what do you expect?  
 **Darwin:** Yeah, don't let Angel hear you say that. Or anyone in fandom.  
 **Havok:** :-D

*

The movie was ostensibly about the human CIA agent who made contact with Charles Xavier, probably not in a bar, during the first Situation involving mutants, cheerily referred to as the X Missile crisis, but Armando was surprised at just how much Charles and Erik - and the rest of the mutants, but mostly Charles and Erik - were featured.

He mentioned this to Angel, who said dryly, "Probably because Dr. McTaggert was a woman." Angel didn't care for the movie at first, but Armando, Armando had Thoughts. And possibly Feelings.

A lot of Feelings, as it turned out.

*

**Darwin:** http://battle.oxoniensis.org/  
 **Darwin:** All right let's do this.  
 **Darwin:** Charles/Erik.  
 **Darwin:** Pick three.  
 **Havok:** hang on.  
 **Havok:** transformation, fisting, hope  
 **Darwin:** ...  
 **Darwin:** No, please, something more random.  
 **Havok:** if you can't do it...  
 **Havok:** no, but really. what's the point of a porn battle if you don't challenge yourself.  
 **Havok:** darwin?  
 **Darwin:** One sec.  
 **Darwin:**

> The moon will save him, Erik thinks dreamily. He's fifteen, and Shaw has broken his fibula, just to show the visiting Nazis how quickly he heals. This memory Charlotte takes from his mind, as she runs her hand down the unscarred territory of his body. They don't scar, not the wolves. Shaw always thought it was the mutation.
> 
> "I see the scars," Charlotte says. "I know." Her gaze turns bright, and distant. "But what is lycantropy then," she muses. "Some kind of a viral infection, seeing how it's transmitted by saliva. If the X-gene exists on a third -"
> 
> Erik puts his fingers to her lips. "It's magic." He smiles at her derisive snort.
> 
> "Oh, Erik. There is no such thing."
> 
> The moon, though. Erik looks out through the window as Charlotte goes off on another tangent about tidal forces and how they're affected by the moon's gravitational pull, and how that might relate to their power, and Erik has to push her flat onto the bed and spread her legs just to shut her up. "Oh," she says, when he drags her in by her thighs so she's almost sitting in his lap.
> 
> "Magic," Erik says, grinning briefly.
> 
> "You flatter yourself."
> 
> "But I haven't started yet." He wets his fingers in his mouth, just to warm them up, watches her as she watches him slide one finger in, and then the next. His thumb on her clit, and by the time he hits the third finger she's writhing under him, calling his name out brokenly.
> 
> It's not planned, this, she's so tiny, he would never, but she's begging him, "More, oh Erik, all of you, please. All of you," and it's a slow, inevitable process, punctuated by nothing but the sounds of her gasps and his own breathing in his ears, and at some point his entire hand is in her, and all he can see is his wrist, and all he can feel is her body clamping around his.
> 
> "Look at you," he says. "Oh, look at you." She comes then, sharp and hard, her entire frame almost rising off the bed, and Erik can't breathe for the beauty of it. "I love you," he says, his free hand on her belly, and he can feel himself inside of her. "You're amazing."
> 
> Charlotte starts laughing, a vaguely hysterical laugh, and she says, "Now where on Earth did you learn how to do that?"
> 
> "Nowhere," Erik replies, looking away. "I've never -" He unfurls another memory, years of being alone, of hunting Shaw, never slowing down for any kind of connection that wasn't fleeting and unsatisfactory. Certainly not this. Charlotte touches his cheek, and he turns into it, kissing her palm.

**Havok:** *clears throat*  
 **Havok:** well.  
 **Havok:** not what i expected, i'll give you that.  
 **Darwin:** :-D

*

Armando has a job interview in the afternoon. Used to be, they would have a little ticky box right below your name, where they'd ask you if you were in possession of an x-gene or not. They don't anymore, but Armando still gets nervous sometimes for a lot of reasons, his genes being one of them. The second place he interviewed at flat out asked, and when Armando answered in the affirmative, offered him the job. Armando didn't ask why, but he turned the job down.

*

Armando goes grocery shopping in the afternoon, and is forced to listen to Angel babble in his ear about all of the million things she so desperately needs. "I'll get you the fruit, Angel, but I am not buying you tampons."

"Can't you just turn yourself into a girl if you find it humiliating?"

"That's not how it works, Angel." He did turn into a white guy that one time, but that was life and death. This is just humiliating. There's another girl in the aisle, she shoots him a sympathetic look as he stares at row upon row of tampons.

"Girlfriend?"

"Roommate."

At the check-out counter, Armando idly grabs a magazine that states, _Thinking of dating a telepath? Think again! Ten rules for dating the man who can literally read your mind_ , in bright pink letters. "For my roommate," he says to the cashier who raises her eyebrow at him.

"Uh-huh."

*

**Havok:** hey  
 **Havok:** i was thinking  
 **Havok:** remember when professor x and magneto were kidnapped by rogue s.h.i.e.l.d. agents and forced to stay together in a cell?  
 **Darwin:** Oh god.  
 **Darwin:** Everyone's written that story.  
 **Havok:** but you haven't.

And it's true, Armando's been thinking about that for a while. Ever since they declassified the incident and a write up on it showed up on his Google news feed. What it must have been like - to be trapped in a room with someone you were once closer than blood to, but spent years afterwards tearing each other apart, always on different sides.

He opens a new text file.

> Two hours after the pleasant haze of sex wears off, Erik is crouched in the corner of the prison, trying to find a weak spot in the wall once again. Charles is sleeping, or so Erik thinks, until he senses eyes on the back of his head. "Don't start."
> 
> "I wasn't going to. We do need to get out of here."
> 
> Erik stands and has to put his hand on the wall to steady himself. It feels, jarringly enough, like he's had this conversation before. "I feel as if we've had this conversation before." And that's Charles, not him. "What are they doing to us?"
> 
> "Mind games. Drugs."
> 
> Charles gets on his elbows, then seems to think better of it and flops back down. "I would ask you back to bed, but."
> 
> "Yes." Erik turns away, leans his cheek against the wall. "Maybe they have a telepath."
> 
> "They do not have a telepath." Charles sounds offended, and Erik laughs.
> 
> "What's more insulting, the notion that a mutant would work for the other side or that he would be more powerful than you."
> 
> "I'm trapped powerless in a small room with you, Erik. My ego's already taken that beating."
> 
> "There has to be a way out."
> 
> Charles says, "Hm," noncommittally.
> 
> "How can you just lie there -" He cuts himself off abruptly and winces, but Charles doesn't seem to have noticed. "Do you ah, do you need any help?"
> 
> "I'm not entirely helpless, Erik. Just crippled."
> 
> They never talk about this. They don't talk about this. All the years of circling around one another, the random hook-ups in motel rooms when one of them gets too - lonely, but lonely's not the word he wants to use. Desperate, perhaps. Just one more thing in the long line of things they don't ever talk about.
> 
> Erik kicks aimlessly at the wall, says instead, "When we get out of here, they are going to wish their parents had never even bothered meeting one another."
> 
> "Yes, I suppose they are," Charles says. He sounds resigned.
> 
> "Fuck you," Erik says. "You sanctimonious dick."
> 
> There's a sound, a sudden burst of air. Erik has to turn away from staring at the wall to make sure: Charles is laughing, his shoulders shaking helplessly and his lips turned up.
> 
> "What," Erik demands, but he has to wait for Charles to finish to get an answer.
> 
> "It's just," Charles says finally, wiping tears from his eyes. "Hank once suggested that if we were locked up in a room together we might just work out our differences. This was some years ago," he adds. "He loathes you now."
> 
> "I wouldn't -" Erik says. "There's still time yet. If I weren't an old man I'd suggest we have sex again. That part always goes spectacularly well."
> 
> "Yes, well. You could always just come back to bed. You never know until you try." He shifts, leaves enough space for Erik to fill. "There's always room."

*

Every year, the Mutant Pride Parade passes by under his window. This year, like last year, Armando grabs a sleeping bag and his laptop and curls up on the balcony to watch it go by. In celebration of mutant kind and in memory of Charles Francis Xavier. "You should go down there," Angel says, ready to take flight, join her friends already in the air.

"I'm good," Armando says, and smiles as Alex comes online. "It's a lovely day," he tells her.

She tilts her head back to the sky. "They keep getting better."

"Yeah they do."


End file.
